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I confess myself at a loss to reconcile these assertions, with the conduct of the fourth Lateran Council on the one hand, and with the honest acknowledgment of Bishop Tunstall on the other

hand.

Doubtless, that really amiable Prelate may say, as he does say, that the decisions of the Church (confounding, as usual the provincial Latin Church of the West with the entire Church Catholic) is the column of the truth: but this does, in no wise, remove the present difficulty. If we receive the doctrine of Transubstantiation, as defined first by the fourth Lateran Council and afterward by the Council of Trent, we plainly must receive it, according to the very confession of Bishop Tunstall himself, not from the UNVARYING traditional testimony of antiquity, but simply upon the mere naked unevidential dogmatic authority of two Popes and two Councils, deciding respectively, according to their own unsupported good will and pleasure, more than twelve centuries and more than fifteen centuries after the Christian Era.

entirely abandoning their own boasted principle of invariable traditionory descent.

CHAPTER V.

PURGATORY.

By the Council of Trent it has been determined; that There is a Purgatory, and that The souls there detained are assisted by the suffrages of the faithful and most especially by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar: and the same Council furthermore asserts; that This doctrine of a Purgatory has been learned by the Catholic Church, both from Holy Scripture, and from the ancient tradition of the Fathers'.

1 Cum Catholica Ecclesia, Spiritu Sancto edocta, ex Sacris Litteris et antiqua Patrum traditione, in sacris Conciliis et novissime in hac Ecumenica Synodo docuerit: Purgatorium esse, animasque ibi detentas fidelium suffragiis potissimum vero acceptabili altaris sacrificio juvari: præcipit sancta Synodus Episcopis, ut sanam de Purgatorio doctrinam, a sanctis Patribus. et sacris Conciliis traditam, a Christi fidelibus credi, teneri, doceri, et ubique prædicari, diligenter studeant. Concil. Trident. sess. xxv. decret. de Purgat: p. 505, 506.

Profiteor pariter in Missa offerri Deo verum, proprium, et propitiatorium sacrificium, pro vivis et defunctis-Constanter teneo Purgatorium esse, animasque ibi detentas fidelium suffragiis juvari. Profess. Fid. Trident. in Syllog. Confess. p. 4.

I. Now, as the Council declares, not merely by its own insulated authority, but professedly from the teaching of Holy Scripture and the ancient Fathers, that there is a Purgatory circumstanced agreeably to the preceding definition: a necessity is plainly laid, upon those who receive such doctrine from the Council of Trent, to establish it by direct proof, both from Holy Scripture, and from the ancient Fathers of the Church. Accordingly, the necessity has been felt, and the proof has been attempted.

1. The proof from Scripture, or from what the Tridentine Council has pronounced to be Scripture, is thought to be contained in the following passages.

(1.) When Judas had made a gathering throughout the company, to the sum of two thousand drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem, to offer a sin-offering; doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection (for, if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead), and also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly. It was a holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin1.

(2.) And, whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but, whoso

1 2 Maccab. xii. 43-46.

ever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come-But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment-For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then he shall reward every man according to his works'.

(3.) Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour-For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build, upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire: and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward: if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire 2.

(4.) For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah3.

(5.) There shall in no wise enter into it any thing

1 Matt. xii. 32. 36. xvi. 27.

2 1 Corinth. iii. 8. 11-15.

3 1 Peter iii. 18-20.

that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life'.

2. The proof from the ancient Fathers of the Church, or the Fathers of the three first centuries, must be sought in the following three writers, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen.

(1.) Tertullian, it will be remembered, flourished at the end of the second and at the beginning of the third century.

We annually make oblations for the dead, for their nativities 2.

Let her pray for his soul: and let her, meanwhile, beg for him refreshment and a participation in the first resurrection: and let her offer on the anniversaries of his dormition 3.

And now repeat with God, for whose spirit you pray, for whom you make annual oblations *. (2.) Cyprian flourished about the middle of the third century.

The Bishops our predecessors, religiously considering and wholesomely providing, determined, that no brother, departing this life, should nominate a Clerk to a guardianship or executorship: and, if any

Rev. xxi. 27.

Tertull. de coron. mil. § 3. Oper. p. 449. For the original, see above, book i. chap. 4. § I. 2. (10.)

* Tertull. de monogam. § 10. Oper. p. 578.

nal, see above, book i. chap. 4. § I. 2. (10.)

For the origi

Tertull. exhort. ad castit. Oper. p. 564. For the original,

see above, book i. chap. 4. § I. 2. (10.)

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